Search - Trembling Blue Stars :: Last Holy Writer

The end of melancholy?

Nobody | 05/17/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Some people have the gift of writing music, and anything they do sounds good, even if it's undistinguished. There are a couple songs here that are real yawns, but don't hurt the ears. There's also a lot of moments that really shine, combined with an excellent sense of knowing when to include a dramatic flourish of guitars or synths that turns an ordinary song into something special, a vast improvement from "The Seven Autumn Flowers". And there's "Idylwild", a nearly perfect song, which illustrates well Wratten's skills. Everything in the song you've heard before, and I'm sure if I had some time I could identify the song from the past where the ringing guitar figures came from, or the melody line, sung by Beth Arzy. So it's derivative, there's only 8 notes, but Wratten knows exactly how long to pause before the guitar's answering chord, and precisely which notes should fit where in the vocal line, a mature professional at work.



It's said that Wratten is a melancholy type, and this doesn't exactly rock out. It reminds me of Kurt Ralske aka "Ultra Vivid Scene" (who Wratten sounds like vocally), mixed with some Cure and a smattering of 4AD and Projekt influences. But the lyrical content aside, I don't sense hurt or despair here, and indeed a couple songs can only be jokes of a sort. Surely he isn't being serious in "A Statue to Wilde", and "The Coldest Sky" is obviously an attempt to make a clone of a "Faith" era Cure song. Nicely done, but jeez, it better be intended to be in jest or in tribute, or it would border on poor taste. Still, if you're going to copy, and he copies a lot, from Robert Smith to Alex Lifeson, at least do it well, and he does.



Overall I have to rate this very high. While breaking no new ground at all, everything sounds good, and this is one of the few CD's of the past couple years (maybe including Submarines) that can be copied whole into your playlist and allowed to run without any real objections. Wratten's been doing this for a long time and this is by far his best. Whether this will break for him or not I can't say, the airwaves appear to be saturated with absolute junk these days, but it's certainly a heck of a fine addition to his discography. I hope it pays him well, because I'd like to hear more in this vein."